The Alphabet of Newlyweds
by truthsetfree
Summary: Ron and Hermione, early in their marriage together. One letter of the alphabet at a time. Disclaimer: Anything you recognize does not belong to me. RHr


Title: The Alphabet of Newlyweds

Pairing: Ron/Hermione

Rating: PG-13? There's brief mentions of sex and such

Author's note: please tell me if this would work better as separate chapters

Feedback: is always appreciated

Disclaimer: I do not own JK Rowling's stuff

A is for apple scented candles. Her favorite scented candles. And she fills their entire house with them, year round. She even has a special store of them kept in a drawer, just in case they should ever run out. On Christmas, she uses special apple-cinnamon scented candles. "Now it smells like Christmas," she tells him, before the mistletoe floats over their heads and they kiss.

B is for the baby she is now carrying. Their baby. His mother has been knitting pink things for the past month- fully expecting the delivery to bring a girl. Hermione hopes she's right, but given how many boys are in his family, she thinks the odds are not in their favor. So she's been doing some knitting of her own. And looking up charms that could re-dye whatever pink knitted creations Molly presents her with.

C is for Crookshanks, who plays with the ball of yarn that has fallen at Hermione's feet. And who still holds a grudge towards rats. Not that Ron blames him at all. Not only does he never plan to let any offspring know that rats can even be kept as pets, but he's currently passing around a petition to have them removed from the official Hogwarts list of permitted familiars. When he told Hermione, she sighed her "you're completely missing the point" sigh but said "well, at least you're getting involved," and proceeded to sign her name.

D is for the driving lessons Hermione is giving him as a wedding present. Which is how he found out they were giving eachother wedding presents. It had meant he had to give her one of her Christmas gifts that he'd already set aside a tad early. Well, more than a tad since they were married in June. The original signed edition of Newt Scamander's most famous work had been easy enough for Luna to locate, but she still drove a surprisingly hard bargain. He can see the Thestrals now of course. And though it makes cleaning their pasture and stalls far easier than it would be otherwise, he's in and out as fast as he's able to be.

E is for the engagement, which took years to come about, until Hermione proposed to him out of sheer frustration. He said yes of course, and presented her with the ring he'd been keeping in his pocket for quite some time, meaning to ask when the moment was right.

F is for the furniture. Some of it from his parents, some of it from her parents, some of it from their old flat. It's all comfortable and broken in, and there's enough of it to function in the rooms they actually use. So why do they need a formal dining room set?

G is for George, who is doing better, but will probably never be the same. As much as he misses Fred, he knows he would never have wanted George to grieve for him like this. He'd want him to smile and be happy. He'd say "the show must go on." He'd want him to laugh and raise hell, and then raise a little extra just for him, because he couldn't be there. He's tried telling George this, but Hermione says he's being insensitive, and that his brother needs to come to terms with the loss of his twin in his own way, and he needs to be supportive. He just doesn't get it at all. He's asked "what's to get? I've lost a brother too. Same one, in fact." She's told him "It's just not the same thing Ron." George knows he's welcome to join them for dinner any time, and sometimes they even extend invitations, but he doesn't come often, and when he does, well, he's just not the same.

H is for the house they're renting, after deciding the flat would really be too small for three. Which meant it was already too small before that, given that her book collection and his Chudley Cannons paraphernalia easily took up enough room to account for at least two other people. Even with various storage charms.

I is for the ink he has to remember to buy on his way home from work today. Between fan letters, business correspondences, notes in margins, and letters to friends and family (especially his ever-expanding side), they run out of it pretty quickly. Hermione keeps mumbling about getting a muggle computer printer, but he still doesn't understand how one works, let alone why it would mean buying less ink.

J is for "James," one of the names Harry and Ginny have reserved for use, along with "Lily." They reserved those names after they found out how many couples were naming their babies "Albus" and "Severus." So Lily and James are off-limits.

K is for the kilt his father-in-law wore to the wedding. He had no idea her family was Scottish. There was a bit of a breeze on their wedding day. No one wanted to see that. No one.

L is for labels. Something else that uses a lot of ink. Something his wife seems to have developed a passion for of late. She seems to think it helps keep things organized. Now that she's spelled everything to return to it's labeled place the moment you put it down, he can see what she means, though he'd had a few close calls with the iron and frying pans. Sometimes he wonders if she does it on purpose…

M is for marmalade. His mother's been teaching Hermione all about canning. She says he eats too much sugar, and she can't understand why his teeth aren't full of cavities. Just this morning, he tasted her first batch of orange marmalade. It was delicious.

N is for the naughty picture of Hermione he keeps in his wallet, in a secret compartment. He'd hex anyone else who ever laid eyes on it. It was her Valentine's Day gift to him this year. And he only thought to give her chocolate. Fortunately he'd had an emergency gift stashed away for forgotten occasions- his father's idea. His father has always been rubbish at remembering dates. Hermione had adored the mermaid strung pearls. Merlin bless his beloved brilliant father.

O is for the cheerful orange they painted the small empty bedroom upstairs in preparation for their firstborn. Hermione had wanted yellow, the color her own bedroom had been for the first eight years of her life. Ron had wanted a nice strong Gryffindor red, afraid that yellow might turn their child into a Hufflepuff. Hermione had rolled her eyes, but suggested orange as a compromise. He'd eagerly agreed. And the next day he'd come home with Chudley Cannons stencils to paint along the border.

P is for pumpkin waffles with chocolate syrup- the first breakfast he ever made for her. It was his favorite food in the world growing up, and the first thing he learned how to cook. He makes it for her for every anniversary and soon enough, every Mother's Day as well.

Q is for the wedding quilt his mother gave them, sewn with enchantments to protect them and ensure sound sleep with no nightmares. He knows it's silly, but he feels a bit uncomfortable with it in the room when they aren't sleeping. So most of the time, it gets locked in the linen closet.

R is for roses. She wore gold tipped red roses in her hair on their wedding day. The roses matched her lipstick, which was specially charmed so it wouldn't come off when they kissed. "Hasn't anyone ever told you redheads shouldn't wear red?"

S is for the sweets he sneaks when he's at work, or anywhere else Hermione isn't. Because he can't live without his chocolate frogs. He just can't.

T is for the two tickets to see the Chudley Cannons play next Wednesday that Ginny was able to get hold of through her Harpies connections. Hermione still doesn't understand why he roots for them, since they aren't even a good team, but this year they've got that new Seeker, and he thinks they've really got a shot. After overhearing one such exchange, Luna handed Hermione a book about the Boston Red Sox, whatever that was, and said "here, I think you need this more than I do," before going back to talking about her latest expeditions to discover the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Hermione, so intrigued by the encounter, and never able to turn down a thick book, had been studying the thing ever since, and looking at him very oddly with an air of resignation.

U is for the Underground. Something the author of her old Muggle Studies textbook wrote her asking about. They've been having regular correspondence almost ever since she took the class. After a number of impassioned letters on her part detailing exactly what was wrong with many different chapters in the book, the author had challenged her to do better. She had, and the revisions she had offered were put into the latest edition of the book, with credit to her. Right now, she was working on yet another update on the Underground. Although Ron had been on the underground himself, he much preferred driving.

V is for Victor Hugo. The author of an enormous muggle tome called "Les Miserables," which Hermione keeps insisting he read. So far, to avoid reading the thing, he's de-Gnomed the garden, frozen and disposed of the Ashwinder eggs in the basement, and even helped Neville re-pot Mandrakes. He hasn't tackled the bogart in the attic yet, but that's only because he knows what it will turn into. And that would be the end of his avoidance. Hermione would make him read the blasted book.

W is for his own name, Weasley, which Hermione adopted only after a very long and involved debate. Which he wisely refrained from participating in. So it was really a debate with the voices in her own head. Which he unwisely did not refrain from mentioning. For a while there, he was very very scared the engagement was off entirely.

X is for Xanadu, who's some sort of cousin to Dobby. He's been living with them for a while now and Hermione's been teaching him to read and write. She's grooming him to head SPEW someday. He's seems to have a thing for Winky who Hermione thinks may have a thing for him too. A good thing, as little Dobbin really seems to like him.

Y is for another year without Voldemort. And all the other similar years ahead of them. He hopes there will be many. He hopes they'll grow old and gray together.

Z is for Zephyr, their owl. Their first purchase as a married couple. They picked him out, with one eye on Crookshanks. But the cat just sat placidly, cleaning one front paw.


End file.
